If its not God’s will for you to be healed and whole, why are Christians going to the doctor? Why does everyone want to be well? Would they not be going against God’s will since they are not “patiently suffering for the Lord”? And if God is “teaching them a lesson”, but they are taking medicine, treatment and enduring pain, do you think anyone would really grow in faith or closer to God when it would appear to most intelligent people that God is a tormenter, not a healer.
OK, since it seems that you did not see my post as you never responded to it, here it is again for your consideration. Perhaps you could answer these questions this time around......
In addition, this is thrown out for consideration and answer from others who support your position on healing and God.
OK. I've been anointed with oil and prayed for by elders according to James, and been anointed with oil and prayed for by faith healers time without count.
Tell me. If God wants to desperately to heal us. Why doesn't He? Why am I NOT healed when I ask in faith according to Scriptural directive?
And I don't want to hear any garbage about the amount of my faith. Jesus healed lots of people who didn't even know who He was.
God is not a weak God that He can't do it in spite of the size of my faith or the faith of the person asking. All anyone needs is faith the size of a grain of mustard seed.
So tell me, if healing is so God's will for us, why are so many people sick? And why am I not healed?
And what do you call martyrdom of believers? By your reasoning, God could be charged with child abuse from Stephen on. It's not just sickness. It's any unpleasant situation.
The assumption that I’m going to go around and around the same junk and/or the same absurdities as before
is a wrong assumption.
I may be flawed but I’m NOT so dumb as to think that the 151st time will be less futile than the other 150 times.
You’ve read the book of Job, what did you conclude from that account?
This is not going to answer your question. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal what has prevented manifestation of His promises in your life. It could be unforgiveness, unconfessed sin, past hurts, anger or any number of hindrances. I was bitter because I thought God had brought everything on me and I just wanted to end my life. It took much prayer and time in God's Word to build my faith and remove all those roadblocks.
The first step for me was to realize and admit once an for all that God is a GOOD God. Blaming God will short circuit your faith immediately as will fear and unbelief.
If you are Born Again, how do you know? It was based on faith in God's Word and confessing Jesus as your Savior and Lord. Every promise in the Bible is received the same way.
As I read your questions I sense that there is lots of anger, frustration and pain. If that is not the case, I apologize. I can certainly relate if that is the case. I had to reach a point in my life (and I am always working to improve) that I believe God's Word (which is TRUTH) above anything else. God is Spirit and His Word is above the temporal world (which IS subject to change and yield to His Word) where we live.
You see that in the life of Jesus. He operated above natural laws. If a mob tried to kill him, he would simply walk away. Sickness and even death was no big deal. A giant hungry crowd, not a problem for the Lord. He overcame because of the Words he spoke, and because he is the Word made flesh.
We are called to be imitators of Christ. But we are living in a fallen world with satan doing his best to lie, mislead and deceive people away from the Truth. We are surrounded by unbelief, tradition, symptoms, and distractions. Heck, just on this thread there have been multiple posts that are convinced that God does not heal and declare anyone that claims that He does is a heretic! That is not an environment that builds faith because faith comes from hearing God's Word.
I will not be able to convince you. Nor do you want to put faith in someone's testimony or experiences - that will always fail you. You want to put your faith only on the Word. There are hundreds of promises of healing in the Bible. They need to be yours, personally. Get before God and declare those promises until they are grounded in your spirit. That needs to be YOUR TRUTH. Then it will manifest in your life. Sometimes immediately, sometimes a little slower, but God does not lie and His Word can be trusted.
This was dropped in my spirit while I was at the gym. Maybe this helps on some of the greater questions in your post. Prayerfully consider this.
The children of Israel had made their way to the Promised Land and it was right there. All they had to do was possess it. Moses sent 12 spies to search out the land. They came back and reported that it was just as wonderful as God had promised. Two spies, Joshua and Caleb, insisted that they should go up at once and possess it because they were well able. The other 10 insisted it was not possible because there were giants in the land.
There was nothing untrue initially about what the 10 spies reported until they began talking fear and unbelief. There was a HIGHER TRUTH in play. God had GIVEN them the land. It belonged to them. They simply had to take it by faith. They had to see the victory in their hearts before they could physically possess it.
The entire congregation believed the 10 spies that it was not possible - God called this an EVIL REPORT. Because of their collective unbelief, a whole generation died in the wilderness. This was NOT God's will. This was their choice based on what they believed and spoke.
Nobody that believed the evil report entered the Promised Land. Only two people that were alive at that time walked into their inheritance - Joshua and Caleb. Why? Because they believed God had given them the land and they were ready and eager to possess it.
You can read the story in Numbers 13 & 14 and Joshua.
I can assure you in the name of Jesus, that God is more eager for you to be healthy and whole than you could ever imagine. That is why he endured the beatings, the torture, the time on the cross and spiritual death - there was no worst possible punishment for Jesus than being apart from the Father.
This will most likely be my last post on this thread. It has gotten personal and not an environment for discussing the Bible in love. And this week is very exciting and Blessed.
As John prayed for all Believers, I pray for you:
Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit. 3 John 1:2 NLT
I have not been following the posts in this strategy except for the few I see pinged to me, but apparently there is a conflict as to whether God always heals, and the reason why one does not receive his healing.
On this, I will say that I believe that healing is definitely provided for in the atonement, (Isaiah 53:4, 5; Matthew 8:17; James 5:14-16) in that while it is consistent with God’s nature and will to heal, manifesting his grace and power, and lack of faith and obedience can indeed prevent deliverance, healing, victory, etc.but it likewise is consistent with the nature and will not to heal, as he has higher purposes in mind, and which can take more faith especially enduring faith - then it may for one to be delivered. And thus lack of faith and obedience prevents what God is seeking to perfect in us. And I can testify the reality of both victory in faith and the lack of victory because of an evil heart of unbelief.
These two aspects of faith, that of deliverance, and that of enduring until deliverance, is see in the hall the faith of Hebrews 11. In which some,
“through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again:” (Hebrews 11:33-35a)
But then there is the keyword “others,”
“...and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. “ (Hebrews 11:35b-38)
Yet these all obtained a good report through faith, (Hebrews 11:39) though being before Christ they received not the promise, but awaited his death and resurrection, wherein he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto , and entered into the glory of God, which is another study.
The point is that by faith, we may escape the edge of the sword as well as be able to endure being sawn into two, and the latter is not because of lack of face for the former.
There was a book called Streams in the Desert, by Mrs. Charles E Cowman, a missionary evangelists with her husband in Japan (one of the cofounders of the Oriental Missionary Society, now the One Mission Society; formerly OMS International), which I read daily a few years ago while I was going through a long time of seeking the Lord.
They believed in divine healing, and were hard-working missionaries in a hard mission field, which required and saw much faith. However in his late 40s shells began to have any heart problems. They spent a little time back in America are seeking to recover but soon returned to campaign more for Christ in Japan.
Having returned to America numerous heart attacks forced him to rest at his home in California and he suffered in great pain during the next six years, yet he always kept a positive attitude while continuing his work for the Lord. “Although broken in body, he kept an oversight of the home office and every department of work on the field, dictating letters by the hundreds.” Finally, a stroke paralyzed his entire left side, and a few weeks later he died.
But apparently during this time Mrs. Cowman, “Lettie, “collected many different articles on faith and patience from the many Christian periodicals to that period of time (and which I think was toward the end of the golden age of Protestant evangelical faith). That Mrs. Cowman believed in divine healing is clear from her October 30 entry, (http://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/desert/streams-in-the-desert-march-30-11535966.html)
Yet like so many others of strong faith before them, he received the reality of divine healing in this life, but awaited the future revelation, when is faith would be made sight.
And it was because of her husband’s old prolonged illness that Mrs. Cowman would provide to the Christian world oneof the most famous daily devotionals ever written. The reality is that if everyone was healthy and wealthy then we would be a most shallow people, as suffering within the body of Christ is actually necessary to enlarge our hearts. For as the Scriptures teach, this fosters interdependence and community, “For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. “ (1 Corinthians 12:24-26)
And in our quest for a immediate deliverance and healing, we miss the greater priority God’s, who has predestinated us to be “joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together,” (Romans 8:17) For this is a attribute of saving faith.
“There is a spiritual law of choosing, believing, abiding, and holding steady in our walk with God, which is essential to the working of the Holy Ghost either in our sanctification or healing.” Charles E Cowman
Now for me to walk in it as i should.
Ahem; please note that in the beginning of my post, “in this strategy” should have been (i think) “in this thread lately,” but i did not speak up at the beginning, and the speech to text software i was using does not always have the correct interpretation of natural tongues!